DropKicks and Errick’s owner Rebecca Ellis said she could not ‘‘in good conscience’’ continue to operate the venues and confirmed to the Otago Daily Times today both would close ‘‘effective immediately’’.
DropKicks was the latest live music venue to be housed in the top floor of the former Captain Cook Tavern, a stomping ground for many of Dunedin’s seminal bands.
Ms Ellis said she paid $380,000 for both businesses — it was her ‘‘life-long dream’’ to create a space for performing arts and culture.
‘‘Through two decades of hard work, saving, and a little luck, in 2025 I was finally in a position to make that dream a reality.’’
Those dreams were now ‘‘shattered’’, she said.
Her company had begun the liquidation process and she was facing personal bankruptcy.
She borrowed ‘‘as much as I possibly could from the bank’’ and her house was also security against the business loans.
‘‘It’s not the end — it’s just the lowest point of my life.’’
The double closure was the culmination of an incident at DropKicks on April 3.
They were then transported to Dunedin Hospital.
This ‘‘critical failure’’ of safety and responsibility could have had serious or even fatal consequences — it was ‘‘truly unacceptable’’, she said.
‘‘I accept full responsibility for this failure, and fully apologise to the person involved, and to everyone in our community.’’
While Ms Ellis accepted she did not have the expertise nor experience to be a suitable licensee, she also took aim at the former owners for making what she claimed were ‘‘misrepresentations’’ before she bought the businesses.
During pre-sale negotiations, she said both venues were represented as profitable and well-run; with the proper systems, staff and training to comply with the law.
Key staff who understood the challenges of the Dunedin hospitality environment, including an operations manager, would also be staying on.
After the sale, the day-to-day operations of both Errick’s and DropKicks — including the sale and supply of alcohol — continued under this operations manager.
This was a mistake, Ms Ellis said.
The venues ‘‘have never been profitable or well-run’’.
‘‘The proper systems, staff and training to comply with the law have never existed.
‘‘I have accepted that the ‘safe and well-run business' underpinning the Errick’s and DropKicks venues — the business I paid my life savings for — never really existed.’’
The operations manager then left to pursue another role shortly after the April 3 incident, leaving her to learn the daily tasks herself, Ms Ellis said.
Former owner Mili Oxley Lobo said she was ‘‘very disappointed’’ to hear both venues would close.
The venues were ‘‘popular and well-run’’.
Both went through ‘‘considerable scrutiny’’ before their liquor licences were issued — that included the way both venues would be managed and operated.
The sale process was conducted through a business broker and the financial statements presented to the purchaser were professionally prepared by an accountant, and accurate, Mrs Oxley Lobo said.
The operations manager Ms Ellis ‘‘appears to have relied upon’’ had continued in the role for five months after the purchase, but subsequently left, she said.
‘‘That is a matter obviously beyond our control.
‘‘Rebecca has now indicated she did not have the hospitality experience or expertise to run these venues.
‘‘We did not appreciate that . . . they are of course businesses that require active management.’’
Ms Ellis said she had decided to ‘‘surrender’’ the two temporary liquor licences the businesses had been trading under.
‘‘There is nothing to sell onward, unless I am willing to set someone else up for failure, inflicting what I have experienced onto someone else — something I would never do, even though it means losing my home and bankruptcy,’’ she said.
